photo: Andy J. Gordon

David Byrne has long maintained a close relationship with notable filmmakers. Back in 1984 he worked with Jonathan Demme on the Talking Heads concert film Stop Making Sense. More recently, in 2020, Spike Lee captured Byrne’s American Utopia during its Broadway run. Brady Corbet, who wrote and directed 2024’s The Brutalist, is the latest to collaborate with Byrne.

Corbet is currently completing postproduction work on a film that looks at Byrne’s recent Who is the Sky? tour. He opted to shoot the performances via large-format cinematography over multiple nights at the Hippodrome in Baltimore.

Byrne has commented, “When Brady told me he wanted to shoot our show in 70 millimeter (70 millimeter!) I didn’t realize what a difference it would make until I saw some frames he sent me. He was right, it really does capture the widescreen visual scope of the show. I’ve never seen anything like it.”

Corbet adds, “I am so grateful to David Byrne and his entire team for entrusting us to capture his hometown show on 8-perf and 15-perf 70mm. The band’s performance is an inclusive celebration of community, and of Baltimore in particular—one of America’s most underappreciated historic cities.”

The distribution and release information has yet to be announced.